Turkish Police Arrest Eleven Suspects of BTC Cyber Attack

Turkish officials from the nation’s cyber crime division have arrested eleven individuals suspected of cyber hacking into digital asset wallets, emails, and other crypto accounts. After a rise in cyber attacks resulting in stolen digital assets, the crackdown was put into action across the nation.

Cyber Hackers Stole $80,000 Worth of Digital Assets

Local media reports claim that fourteen victims have filed complaints to Turkish authorities regarding compromised digital wallets. The hackers managed to send funds to various wallets and then exchanged them for fiat currencies. According to Daily Sabah, throughout investigations of these claims authorities accounted for more than $80,000 worth of stolen digital funds.

Suspects were then identified through monitoring and trailing phone numbers used to sign up on the trading networks which were used to exchange the stolen funds. The Hürriyet reported these cyber attackers managed to transfer funds across various digital wallets in an attempt to conceal their actions. Turkish police authorities made eleven arrests on the 26th of October based in the capital throughout a planned raid with special ops department, Polis Özel Harekat. From these arrests, ten are still being detained. During the raid all associated devices including eighteen phones, twenty two USBs, six laptops, two driver’s licenses, false identification and more were all confiscated.

Throughout the investigation, potential suspects were traced through their use of different banks and ATMs equipped with security cameras. The search for additional victims linked to the attacks are underway.

Turkish Turn to Cryptocurrency During Crisis

Turkey has notably suffered several issues regarding both economic and political structures. Their fiat form of currency, the Lira, suffers from hyperinflation and is no longer supported against the USD dropping more than 45% in value throughout 2018.

These issues have given Turkish nationals a growing interest in digital assets considering the current state of the lira and the US dollar. This August saw bitcoin trading volumes in the country spike as a result of a growing fear that national banks might discontinue supporting dollar accounts. Rumors and anxiety called for a mass extraction of all foreign currencies from national banks particularly in US dollar funds.

With cryptocurrencies offering Turks a new solution, the nation has increasingly grown their interest and adoption of the technology. Unfortunately, this has also given way to various technical scams and cyber attacks. A popular investment within the nation includes the Turcoin, a supposed alternative to crypto investments supported by the nation and was marketed as a rival to the popular digital asset, bitcoin. However, it was quickly revealed that the Turcoin was in fact a Ponzi sheme as the company halted all distribution of the token once it was launched, while the founders fled the nation with millions worth of dollars worth of investor money.